Immigration Restriction

Question:

And where would the immigrants go? Could we see Australia or South America being as ethnically mixed (or as populous) as the U.S.? Or maybe the immigrants stay home. Effects on WWI (after all, most of the immigrants, it seems to me, were from the Central Powers). I can see some pretty big ramifications here.

Answer:

This may have been done, but WI the U.S. had adopted immigration policies similar to those of the 1920's during the 1830's, 40's or 50's? There was support for this sort of thing, namely the Know-Nothing Party, which was fairly strong. Maybe after the first batch of immigrants from Germany and Ireland come over, there is a backlash and the U.S. adopts strict quotas and all that. I can't even begin to calcutate the effect on U.S. population down the road, especially as you get to the turn of the century. And the political and economic effects also seem huge.

The Civil War may have turned out differently, considering the high proportion of immigrants in the Union Army. Tammany Hall probably won't be as powerful, without large numbers of immigrant votes to mobilize. What about western settlement and the transcontinential railroad?

You might be interested in the below link:

http://www.ahtg.net/TpA/tpanoram.html

This, part of a much larger AH, assumes an earlier and much bloodier *War of 1812 (for the United States) and consequently greater xenophobia. Over the course of the 19th century from the 1850's, immigration is largely shut down to the US.

See

http://www.ahtg.net/TpA/tpasouam.html

for information on the immigration to South America,

http://www.ahtg.net/TpA/tpbrazil.html

for information on the immigration to Brazil,

and

http://www.ahtg.net.TpA/migrations.html

for information on global migrations.

Probably, this would not be posible unless the US had expanded less. With the Louisiana Purchase, the Mexican Cession, and the Oregon Territory having added vast amounts to the national domain, the argument that immigrants were necessary if the country was to be settled was hard to resist. Surprisingly, even the Know Nothings did *not* advocate immigration restriction. They "merely" proposed to curtail the political influence of immigrants by confining elective offices to native-born Americans and by greatly increasing the necesary waiting period for obtaining citizenship and voting rights.

"As was noted above, the staunchest of nativists in the years between 1850 and 1860, the Know Nothings, never advocated a solution to the 'immigration problem' more radical than lengthening the time until immigrants could become naturalized. Nothing like the outright restriction of immigration imposed after 1921 was even considered. The isolated impact of immigration found here may explain why: with immigration's negative effects limited to one occupation group (skilled workers) in urban places in one region, it was difficult to make the case for restriction to a nation that otherwise derived significant benefits from immigration."